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Organize Your Dining Room
Whether it is used once a year or every day, learn how to organize your dining room and keep it that way
Organize Your Dining Room
Declutter and Clean
Start by removing everything from the room that is not used for dining, including all decorative items. Make decisions about these items, using the following criteria:
- Does the item belong somewhere else in the house? If so, put it away.
- Is the item unnecessary clutter? If so, bring it to
Clutter Central.
- Do you want to put the item back into the dining room? If so, set it aside.
Next, give your dining room a thorough cleaning:
- Vacuum thoroughly or wash the floors.
- Empty the china cabinet and wipe down all the shelves, drawers and cabinets.
- Wash the windows.
- Put window curtains in the dryer to remove dust.
- Wash the light fixture.
- Wipe down the table and chairs.
Now you can bring back the decorative items you decided to keep in the room. Be sure to give them a thorough cleaning before placing them in the room.
Now that you have removed all the clutter and cleaned, it's time to organize your dining room. The first step is to determine how your dining room is used. Is it a formal dining room saved for holidays and special occasions or is it a more casual dining room used for every day family meals? Let's start with the formal dining room.
Organize Your Dining Room
The Formal Dining Room
Don't let your formal dining room become an out-of-sight-out-of-mind clutter trap. Just because the room is not used very often does not mean that you should use it for a storage room.
Get into the habit of putting items where they belong, whether it is another room in the house or a storage area. Do not let things pile up in your dining room.
If you have a china cabinet that is large enough to store all of your formal dinnerware in addition to table linens you should consider yourself lucky. However, there are a few things you can do to keep your china cabinet organized.
- Do not overstuff the display area - this will only make the china cabinet look messy which will translate into your dining room looking messy. Reserve the display area for your favorite pieces. Store the remainder of your dinnerware in the cabinets or drawers, making sure to keep them safe in china protectors or by placing several sheets of paper towel between each dish.
- Store tablecloths, placemats and table runners neatly in drawers or in baskets inside cabinets. If you have napkins and napkin rings that coordinate with a particular tablecloth, keep the sets together by placing them in a large, zippered plastic bag like the ones new sheet sets come in. You can even label the bags with magic marker or by using a safety pin to attach a tag for easy identification.
- After you take the time to get your china cabinet looking exactly the way you want it, take a picture of it and keep the picture handy. Each time you remove items from the cabinet, either to use them or to clean the cabinet, you will know exactly where they belong without having to agonize over trying to get it to look like it did before you removed the items.
As long as you remove the clutter from your formal dining room you should be able to easily keep this room clean. Simply go through it at least once per week and follow the steps listed above for a thorough cleaning.
Organize Your Dining Room
The Casual Dining Room
If you use your dining room on a more casual, daily basis, it can get cluttered fairly easily.
Your kids might do their homework at the table and leave their books and papers spread out. You may use the table to read the newspaper and then stash it in a pile in the corner when you are done.
Any flat surface is a prime suspect for gathering clutter, so the focus of organizing the casual dining room is going to be on the dining room table.
Determine the ways in which you use your dining room table and then establish some rules to keep it clean.
- If your kids use the table for homework, make a rule that all books and papers must be returned to their book bags when they are done.
- If you use the dining room table for reading the newspaper, keep a newspaper basket in the dining room to place the papers in when you are done. When the basket gets full recycle the newspapers.
- If you use your table for paying bills or doing paper work, keep the necessary papers in a tray that can easily be stored away in a nearby drawer when you are done.
Creating simple solutions to keeping your dining room free from clutter will make it a more enjoyable room to be in.
Be sure to keep your casual dining room clean too. Follow the steps above for a thorough cleaning at least once per week.
Now that you know how to organize your dining room, enjoy it!
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